Displaying items by tag: GCW458

Under the current circumstances it’s not surprising to see how much Indian cement production fell in April 2020. Like many other countries, its lockdown measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak suppressed industrial output. Yet seeing an 86% year-on-year fall in the world’s second largest producer is shocking. Cement production declined to 4.1Mt from 29.2Mt. Further data shows, as part of the Indian government’s eight core industries, that steel and cement production suffered the most. Coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum refinery products, fertilisers and electricity generation all fell by far less.

Graph 1: Change in Indian cement production year-on-year (%). Source: Office of the Economic Adviser.

By comparison in China monthly cement output only fell around 30% at the peak of its outbreak. The difference is that China implemented a graduated lockdown nationally, with the toughest measures applied in Wuhan, the place the outbreak was first identified. As we reported in April 2020 demand for cement in Wuhan had fallen by around 80% at the time its lockdown ended. Production and demand are different, but India’s experience feels similar except that it’s on a national scale. The last time the country had a dip in cement production recently was in late 2016 when the government introduced its demonetisation measures and dented cement production growth rate (and national productivity) in the process.

UltraTech Cement, Orient Cement, Ambuja Cement, India Cement, Dalmia Bharat, JK Lakshmi Cement, Shree Cement and others all suspended operations to varying degrees in the first phase of the lockdown in late March 2020. Operations of industrial plants in rural areas was then cleared to restart in mid-April 2020, although subject to local permissions and social distancing rules, as the country’s lockdown zones took shape. All of this started to show in company results towards the end of March 2020 as sales started to be hit. The worst is yet to filter through to balance sheets.

March 2020 was a particularly bad time for the government to shut down cement plants because it is normally the month when annual construction work peaks. Cement production usually hits a high around the same time. The monsoon season then follows, reducing demand, giving producers a poor time to restart business. Credit ratings agency Care Ratings has forecast that capacity utilisation will drop to 45% in the 2020 – 2021 financial year. This follows a rate of 65 – 70% over the last six years with the exception of 2019- 2020, which was dragged down to 61% due to lockdown effects. On top of this labour issues are also expected to be a major issue to the sector returning to normality. The mass movement of workers back to their homes made world-wide news as India started its lockdown. Now they have to move back and Care Ratings thinks this is unlikely to complete until after the monsoon season, by September 2020. Hence, it doesn’t expect a partial recovery until the autumn, nor a full recovery until January 2021 at the earliest.

Not everybody is quite as gloomy though. HM Bangur, the managing director at Shree Cement recently told the Business Standard newspaper that he was expecting a rebound following the resumption of production in May 2020. He also reported a capacity utilisation rate of 60% at his company, higher than Care Rating’s prediction above, and he noted a difference between demand in rural areas and smaller cities (higher) compared to bigger cities (lower).

India is now pushing forward with plans to further unlock its containment measures to focus on the economy. However, daily reported news cases of coronavirus surpassed 8000 for the first time on Sunday 31 May 2020. How well its more relaxed lockdown rules will work won’t be seen for a few weeks. While this plays out we’ll end with quote from HM Bangur that will resonate with cement producers everywhere: “sales are imperative.”

Rwanda: Cimerwa has officially announced the appointment of Albert Sigei as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeded Bheki Mthembu, following the end of his term in office.

Sigei has 17 years’ experience in the building materials sector working for LafargeHolcim. His last role was in Malawi where he served as the local CEO, following postings in Kenya, Egypt and Nigeria. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from University of Nairobi as well as professional qualifications in accounting and information technology management.

His first months in office have included coping with the coronavirus pandemic, remarketing Cimerwa’s product range under the SURE brand and working on the company’s listing on the Rwanda Stock Exchange.

UK: Breedon Group has appointed Donna Hunt as its first Group Head of Sustainability. In the newly-created role, she will be responsible for developing and implementing a sustainability strategy to shape the group's practices and performance, ultimately improving the sustainability of Breedon's operations, products and services.

Hunt holds over 20 years' experience having held several senior sustainability, environmental and stakeholder engagement positions across the energy, aerospace engineering and construction materials sectors. She has served on several cross-industry committees on sustainability-related topics and remains an active STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Industry Ambassador on behalf of the Mineral Products Qualifications Council (MPQC).

Ethiopia: Samuel Halala, the director of Ethiopian Chemical and Construction Inputs Industry Development, says that the Abay Cement plant is 60% complete and due to start operation in 2021. The 2.5Mt project is located near Degen in Amhara Region, according to New Business Ethiopia. It has an investment of around US$260m. Once completed it is expected to create 1500 jobs.

Halala added that the country’s 21 cement plants have a production capacity of 17Mt/yr but have a capacity utilisation rate of around 60%. Only 14 plants are currently active, producing 11.5Mt/yr.

Nepal: Udayapur Cement Industry has resumed clinker production after a closure period of over two months. The 800t/day cement plant was forced to close both production and sales due to government-mandated lockdown measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Himalayan Times newspaper. It has now resumed operation using social distancing rules.

India: Switzerland-based ABB has reported its successful installation of electrification and automation systems at RCC’s upcoming 3.9Mt/yr integrated Mukutban plant in Yavatmal, Maharashtra. The plant will have a 40MW captive power plant and an 11MW heat recovery system. ABB has supplied MV and LV Switchgears with UMC100.3 intelligent motors, an ABB Ability System 800xA and an ABB Ability Expert Optimiser.

Azerbaijan: Cement producers produced 0.91Mt of cement in the first quarter of 2020, down by 8.7% year-on-year from 1Mt in the first quarter of 2019. Ready-mix concrete production rose by 9.9% to 0.46Mt from 0.51Mt, while the total value of construction materials produced fell by 4.5% year-on-year to US$120m from US$126m. The decline was attributed to a decrease in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Trinidad & Tobago: Trinidad Cement has said that it is celebrating 365 days without a loss time injury (LTI). The company said, “Our strict safety protocols implemented throughout our operations are paying off… by saving lives.”

Mexico: Cemex has said that new rules proposed by the Secretariat of Energy affecting subsidies for renewable power users will ‘adversely impact business.’ Noticias Financieras News has reported that as of 1 January 2020 Cemex had contracted for the supply of 918MW of renewable energy, 802MW (87%) of it in Mexico.

World: Cemex has said that it is part of a group of companies jointly launching Restarting Together - an initiative aimed a reinvigorating the economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. It says that the initiative aims, “to find innovative projects that seek to expedite the return to normality after the confinement period.” It added, “This initiative also looks to identify projects to boost economic recovery in a sustainable way, aimed specially at improving employment, revitalising the ecosystem of small businesses, and creating networks and financial aid mechanisms for crisis situations.”

Restarting Together is welcoming innovative project proposals from the public until 30 June 2020. The criteria on which proposals will be assessed are their ‘social and economic impact, feasibility, rapid implementation time, and degree of sustainability and innovation.’